Short problem: Just installed an Nvidia GeForce 9600 card. It works if I boot with an older, 3.2, kernel but doesn't work with the 3.16 kernel (Latest on my machine, I didn't update my kernel yet)

I have LMDE installed. I had been running an AMD graphics card. I purged fglrx* and got rid of my xorg.conf file (well, renamed it to backup actually). Shutdown. Swapped the cards. Reboot.
If I boot with the latest kernel on my machine, 3.16, then it loads up and I get a few weird characters in different colors along the top right of the first screen and nothing else.
If I boot with the oldest kernel I have- 3.2 - then it loads up fine. I haven't done any gaming or graphics intense stuff yet, just desktop, but it has working dual displays. If I understand my profiler correctly- it is using noveau driver.

Any advice, other than live in the old kernel, so I can get the driver working properly on the newer kernel? Also, I know there is an even newer kernel sitting in Level 4 of the Mint Updater that I do want (need) to install at some point- so if that impacts the driver discussion at all, let me know.
I am looking to try out some AI and machine learning. I played with AI generated text (trained form a book for example) with the AMD card a bit. So I'll be trying some of that out and trying out the GPU for that.